In March 2011, Naice a Nilme will celebrate its sixth birthday. For six years, the site gave fans of Aragorn and Legolas fanfiction a place to gather, share stories and – hopefully – find friends. And all these friends are invited to party hard when the site's next birthday comes around!

Last year, we celebrated the occasion with a Homecoming Party. This time, we'll try something new. Again, it's a contest that calls for your participation. And of course there will be prizes as well!

 

A big round of applause goes out to the readers who braved the world of podfic to participate in the challenge! Thanks to them, we have five podfics competing - and each reader made something special with the stories they decided to read. Listen to find out:

Amarok with "The Sea, the sea!"

N_Forest with "The Last Great Adventure" and "A Taste of Honey"

Mysterious Jedi with "Jest a little out of Hand"

Tanis with ""Lost & Found"

The next week will be spent with counting points and such. But even if you have not participated - you can still give this challenge a go by voting for your favourite podfic. The podficcer with the most votes will win the Members' Choice prize - a Lord of the Rings pen. To vote, simply check your favourite podfic in the poll up on the main page!

Since all entries came in quite late, the poll will up till March 13th to give you a fair chance to listen to all stories. And don't forget - of course, all podfic can be reviewed just like a normal story. I'm sure the readers would love some feedback!

 

Fanfiction wants to be read. Usually, we do that on our computer, on an eReader or even using a printout of the story we're interested in. But what happens when someone reads a story aloud? Records it and makes it available to others? Then a podfic was created – a fanfic read out loud for others to enjoy, even when they don't have the time to read. Because with podfic, you can enjoy your favourite fanfiction while walking the dog, doing the laundry or driving your car!

Naice a Nilme wants to invite you to try out this rather new form of fannish engagement. We want you to record fanfiction and post it on the site! Doesn't matter whether it's a long or a short story, doesn't matter whether you've written it yourself or whether you're reading someone else's story (though you certainly should get the authors permission!). Sit down, record, upload and then share with NAN's community!

We've put together a short Podfic-FAQ to get you started. The FAQ also includes info on how to post podfic. And it offers a few links if you'd rather read a little more before you actually sit down and record. If you still have questions, please contact Michelle or reply to the news blurb announcing the contest.

You will get quite a bit of time to record something for Naice a Nilme. You can enter whenever you like and post your podfic – even one day before the deadline ends! Maybe you enter with one story. And maybe you find that you like the contest and post ten in the end. It's all up to you! The contest will run until March 1rst – Aragorn's birthday. After that, the general counting of points will follow to determine the winners. Those will be announced on March 13th – the actual birthday of Naice a Nilme.

For every podfic you post you can gain points, depending on several aspects of the story. The three members with the highest score will be our winners. The points add up in the following fashion:

There will also be two other prizes that don't depend on the points you gain. So, even if you think everyone else is gaining more points than you, you still have a chance to win a little something!

 

If you don't feel up to tackling an epic story, you are more than welcome to downsize! Feel free to start small. There's a special prize for very short podfics. Don't feel like recording a drabble is not worth the effort! It's a great way to get a feeling for the medium. The Ficlet Madness Bonus Prize is for everyone who sends in a drabble or ficlet podfic (with ficlet we mean anything under ten minutes – think AA prompt). The winner will be determined in a raffle. For every short podfic (remember: under 10 minutes) you post, you will get a raffle ticket. After March 1rst, the winner will be drawn. This also means that your chance to win rises with every short podfic you post!

To give all members a way to participate, there will also be a prize determined by poll. It's totally up to Naice a Nilme's members who they think deserves this prize! The poll will run from March 1rst to March 7th.

And here are the prizes you can win this time! Please keep in mind that you will have to provide me with a shipping address in case you win. This address will only be used for shipping your prize.

And now, please enjoy!